C138.1 —- [6.4 — The Strange Tales of Fengjia Town]

Under Gu Yin’s inexplicably creepy gaze, Feng Qi ultimately didn’t pick up the necklace.

 

“Don’t… want it?”

 

Gu Yin looked at Feng Qi, who had stopped moving, and his tone seemed a little lost.

 

If Feng Qi didn’t take it, there would be no way for him to ask to borrow Feng Qi’s face.

 

After all, Gu Yin really wanted to be friends with Feng Qi; he strictly adhered to the rules of human society regarding the etiquette of friends and would not forcefully take away Feng Qi’s skin.

Rustling—the wind blew through the mountain forest, making the sound of leaves rubbing together.

Calling Feng Qi back from her short-lived fear.

 

“Thank you for your kindness; no need.” Feng Qi withdrew her hand in shock.

Then, she looked with some trepidation at the monster with a human body and snaketail in front of her.

 

In the past, although there were rumors circulating around the town that there was a human flesh-eating monster outside the town, Feng Qi had never put that kind of horrible rumor on Gu Yin.

She believed that Gu Yin was a kind monster.

As a matter of fact, based on the time spent together, Feng Qi had also determined that Gu Yin was just a young man raised in the mountains and forests.

He didn’t understand the world, but his character was gentle and harmless.

But this time, under the inexplicable fear in her heart, she suddenly realized the inhumanity of Gu Yin.

Thinking of the insects that had gradually increased in the town recently, as well as the townspeople who had been bitten, Feng Qi couldn’t help but subconsciously take a few steps back, avoiding Gu Yin’s line of sight.

Gu Yin’s ugly face wasn’t the only thing disturbing her now; there was also a bit of fear that she didn’t want to admit.

However, Feng Qi recognized herself as a kind and gentle person and did not want to show her fear for the time being.

That would be too hurtful, and it would also make her previous statements about treating Gu Yin as a human being too hypocritical.

However, despite this, Feng Qi was still not in the mood to continue chatting with Gu Yin.

She wanted to leave this place right after she arrived.

However, in Gu Yin’s horrifyingly fixed gaze, Feng Qi still pretended to be calm and asked Gu Yin where the jewels in his hand came from as a way to cover her emotions.

“In the cave behind the mountain, there are many.”

Gu Yin kindly pointed to the big mountain behind him.

Fengjia Town was located on the mountainside and had been shrouded under the mountain for generations; since ancient times, they had relied on the mountain to live.

But after stepping into modern society, very few people would risk being attacked by wild beasts to enter the depths of the mountains, and no one would find anything in the depths of the mountains.

Feng Qi guessed that it was some ancient tomb cave or something like that, which was discovered by Gu Yin, a wild man monster living in the deep forest, who then appropriated it for himself.

After all, he was a monster that had never come into contact with human society, and he didn’t know what an ancient tomb was, nor did he know the value of these jewels.

After casually finding some jewelry, they were only taken as some worthless, shiny things.

“Gu Yin, you are really lucky; these pieces of jewelry are very expensive out there.

So even though it’s not good for you to wear this jewelry, keep it for yourself; you might be able to exchange it for money in the future; I don’t need it. Thanks for the kindness.”

 

After Feng Qi finished speaking, she realized that she had said too much.

After being startled, she wasn’t in a good mood and accidentally said all of her true feelings.

Although she had always thought that Gu Yin was ugly, she was still very understanding and had not said it outright.

Now that she accidentally let her words slip out, she couldn’t help but look at Gu Yin somewhat apologetically.

 

Of course, after her eyes touched the ugly scars on Gu Yin’s face, she still paused and avoided them.

Even though Gu Yin’s features were good, the dense suture marks on that face still left Feng Qi somewhat powerless to accept them.

 

After hearing Feng Qi’s words, Gu Yin’s icy vertical pupils darkened a bit, but he didn’t get angry; instead, he nodded; it wasn’t clear what he was thinking.

Seeing this, Feng Qi also didn’t say anything more.

After all, what she said was true.

Gu Yin was indeed ugly and scary.

Keeping these jewels for the future would also be a way out.

Otherwise, he could only stay in the mountains and die of old age like a beast for the rest of his life.

Of course, it was also possible for him to die due to lack of food or infected wounds.

Beasts weren’t humans; they lived today without thinking about tomorrow; even if Gu Yin was a powerful monster, he wasn’t an exception.

It was just a pity about that beautiful jade necklace.

Feng Qi’s eyes lingered on that necklace; she gritted her teeth, but she still didn’t take it.

She comforted herself by saying that she didn’t want to take advantage of Gu Yin.

But in fact, deep down, she also knew that it was Gu Yin’s gaze just now that made her heart palpitate.

Actually, Feng Qi wanted to ask Gu Yin why he suddenly remembered to give her jewelry today and why his behavior became so strange.
But Feng Qi’s intuition told her that it was better not to ask.

So Feng Qi stopped talking and signaled that she was leaving.

Regardless of what exactly happened to Gu Yin just now, today’s Gu Yin made her very unhappy anyway.

She didn’t want to stay here any longer.

“Won’t anyone like me if I don’t look good…?”

Was there not even the slightest possibility?
Just as Feng Qi was about to leave this place, Gu Yin suddenly asked out loud.

He lowered his head and looked at the marks of the stitches on the back of his hand, hiding what he was thinking.

For the past few days, he had been tearing the skin on the back of his hand every day, just like the other day when he had peeked at the priest’s mass in the church.

But the result after each tear was the same.

The ugly stitches didn’t go away, and only the gu under his skin continued to repair the mutilated body.

 

Yet he continued undaunted to go on every day.

Gu Yin thought he must be sick.

Every day his mind was filled with the priest’s figure.

And every memory made him realize how worlds apart he was from the priest.

The priest never had these ugly marks on his smooth skin.

So did all the other humans; they all had smooth, beautiful skin.

The priest’s beauty and his ugliness were so stark that he had been getting more and more depressed lately, tearing at his skin more and more until it was white as a bone.

The thirst for Feng Qi’s face was even stronger than ever before.

And after getting Feng Qi’s refusal just now, Gu Yin’s mood completely fell to the bottom.

But this low mood shouldn’t be because of a favorable feeling towards the priest.
 

After all, he was the enemy of his good friend, so how could he have a favorable feeling towards him?

That wasn’t something a normal human should do.

He cared so much about his face, so much about whether or not a human would like someone with an ugly face, simply because he couldn’t stand his own ugliness anymore.

There was no other reason.

Yes, there was no other reason.
Gu Yin explained to himself so in his mind.

The tail that had circled the ground three times was anxiously slapping the ground in a place he didn’t know about, as if he were enduring his deepest uneasiness.

Hearing Gu Yin’s question, Feng Qi glanced at him.
Thinking that it was Gu Yin implicitly confessing to her.

After all, when she became a friend before, Gu Yin’s attitude towards her was considerate, almost like a dog.

Even if Feng Qi was a person who wasn’t very good at reading people’s hearts, she could sense that Gu Yin cared about her.
Feng Qi was a straightforward person who was not very good at hiding her emotions.

After realizing this, the bottom of her eyes couldn’t help but show a little bit of dislike.

 

The monster with a human body and a snake’s tail had a human face, but it was ugly.

 

The only good thing about it was that it had a pretty good figure.

 

But that tall and grotesque size that one could only see by tilting his head was enough to cancel out this only advantage.

 

Feng Qi thought that anyone other than herself would scream in terror at the sight of this tall monster, not to mention whether she liked it or not.

 

But of course this couldn’t be said outright to Gu Yin; otherwise, it would be too much.

 

So Feng Qi politely stated that she already had a boyfriend.

“…… It’s actually okay if you’re not good-looking; we’ll be good friends in the future.”

 

But there would be no other relationship beyond that.

 

In the empty mountain forest, Gu Yin lowered his head and didn’t say anything.

 

He actually didn’t listen carefully to what Feng Qi was saying.

 

Because he had already seen the answer in Feng Qi’s eyes.

 

No one would like an ugly face.

 

A human like the priest was even more completely impossible.

Feng Qi looked at the emotionally depressed Gu Yin and hesitated, but still left.

 

She felt that Gu Yin needed to calm down on his own.

 

After all, it was indeed impossible for her to like Gu Yin; the only person she liked was her boyfriend, Feng Yun.

Gu Yin didn’t stop Feng Qi from leaving.

 

In fact, he was completely immersed in his own world and didn’t care about Feng Qi leaving.

 

When Feng Qi looked back after walking out for a long time, she could still see the figure with a human body and a snake’s tail coiled in the open space, hanging his head seemingly frustrated.

Feng Qi frowned as the fear in her heart gradually dissipated.

 

She began to wonder if she had just been frightened by the townspeople in the town, and that was why she looked at Gu Yin as very scary.

 

Gu Yin, a simple monster that drank bloo-d and lived on his own, wasn’t terrifying with his well-developed limbs and a simple mind.

 

 

Thinking this way, Feng Qi didn’t take the fear in her heart just now seriously.

 

She continued to walk in the direction of the town.

 

She wasn’t in the mood to continue going out today, so she simply went home to rest.

*

 

And at this time in the mountain forest.

 

Gu Yin also returned to his cave.

 

He was tall, and the cave he lived in was extraordinarily spacious.

 

Inside the cave, there were various passageways leading nowhere; only the outside of the cave revealed some bright light so that the entire cave wasn’t completely plunged into darkness.

 

Rustle…

 

The sound of snaketail scales rubbing against the ground came from the cave, and there were many more strange rubbing sounds.

 

It was only when the bright light from the cave entrance fully shone in that it was realized that those rubbing sounds came from a thick layer of paper-like debris on the ground.

 

It looked like snake molts or something else even more ghastly.

Gu Yin swam to the bright light of the cave and came to the edge of the pool of water inside the cave, looking at his reflection in the water with somber eyes.

 

After looking at it for a while, he then took out a tattered book from under his weed-strewn bed.

 

On it were written the words Fairy Tales in tattered and illegible letters.

 

This book was something he had only recently acquired.

 

With the little knowledge he had stolen from the town, he was barely able to read the contents of this book.

 

The beautiful fairy tale world inside was longed for.

 

But even in the beautiful fairy tale world, the end of the ugly people was tragic.

 

Only one was different.

 

In that story, the ugly witch stripped her entire body of skin and gained a beautiful face after replacing it with the skin of a beautiful woman.

 

Looking at this fairy tale, Gu Yin’s face showed envy.

“But, it’s a lie.”

 

Gu Yin looked at the book in a daze, and after a long time, he spoke in a low voice.

 

The young man’s voice was magnetic and clean yet revealed a creepy and eerie morbidity.
Gu Yin’s gaze fell on the thick layer of paper scraps inside the cave, some shattered while others could be seen as intact skin.

It seemed like someone had personally torn off their own skin.

And even with the intact skin peeled off, he didn’t get to look good.

 

Stabbing-

Grasping a piece of torn-off skin on his dark fingernails, Gu Yin looked at the bloody skin, his vertical pupils filled with resignation.

 

There was simply no way anyone could like a face that was so ugly that even he found it unbearable.

 

As if the gentle and beautiful face of the priest appeared in front of his eyes, Gu Yin’s pale fingertips sunk deep into the flesh and continued to tear at the broken skin, as if he didn’t feel the slightest pain.

 

Only his reddened eyes and trembling fingers indicated that he wasn’t impervious to pain.

He was just too eager to become normal.

 

But it was futile in the end.

 

By the time he stopped, the pool of water had already been dyed red by the gu.

 

The dense, slender gu repaired the skin he had torn apart along the broken wounds, restoring everything to the way it was before.

 

Gu Yin looked at the traces of stitches on his body, and within his vertical pupils, which had always been ice-cold, finally revealed the aggression and resentment befitting of a teenager.

 

Resentment of why he was the only one so ugly and unattractive.

 

After looking at it for a while, he covered his face with his pale fingers, as if he didn’t want to see his face again.

 

“What exactly can… be done?”

 

“How do…?”

Gu Yin’s voice was filled with suppressed madness.

 

There was no more of his usual calmness.

 

He was becoming more and more concerned about his face lately.

 

Even though he had been upset about his ugly face before, it hadn’t reached this point of near madness.

 

Gu Yin didn’t know what was wrong with him; he only knew that he didn’t want to be this ugly anymore.

 

He wanted to be pretty, to be normal.

 

Normal, like the believers who stayed around the priest all day.

 

Instead of only being able to hide in a dark corner and peek at the priest’s mass.

 

In the cave, he didn’t know how long it took before he let go of the hand covering his face, listlessly lying on the ground, looking out in the direction of Fengjia Town outside the cave in a daze.

 

Was it because of the lack of a beautiful woman’s skin that it failed?

 

If only he could borrow Feng Qi’s face skin, then he could give it a try.

 

Gu Yin lowered his eyes that were dark, feeling that all the problems were back to the beginning.

 

To get Feng Qi’s face skin, he had to be a very good friend, but he failed to fulfill Feng Qi’s wish and failed to teach the priest a lesson, and now there was no way to get Feng Qi’s skin.

 

Flipping through the contents of the fairy tale book, Gu Yin was a little lost in thought as he looked at a few of the pages about friendship.

 

Unlike the perfect and flawless ones on TV, in this fairy tale book, which leaned towards the darker style, some friendships would break.

 

And the friendship after the break seemed to be the enemy relationship; he was free to peel off the enemy’s skin and parade in the street.

If only his friendship with Feng Qi was broken, then he wouldn’t be so troubled.

 

He wouldn’t have to rack his brain to borrow a face from Feng Qi.

 

Gu Yin thought so, as if fantasizing about what he would look like after he became good-looking; his reflection in the water pool couldn’t help but smile.

 

Revealing a twisted and childlike pleasant smile.

 

But a moment later he came back to his senses and shook his head.

 

What kind of person expected a friendship to break up just after becoming friends?

 

As a normal person, there was no way he would do that.

Just like he stood on the same side with his friend, fighting against the priest.

 

He was a friend who was loyal to his friendship.

Gu Yin couldn’t help but see the priest again in his mind’s eye at the mention of him.

 

Every evening lately he would quietly hide in the church, trying to get the right moment to teach the priest a lesson.

But every time, it was to no avail.

 

Only every morning, when he hid in the shadows and peeked at the priest’s mass, did he find some solace.

 

He found himself enjoying watching the priest’s gentle expression as he spoke, more gentle than the gentlest look he had ever imagined his mother to have.

 

But Gu Yin knew it wasn’t that he had fallen in love with the priest and betrayed his best friend.

It was probably just that he simply liked the sect.

If he had been a human, he probably would have believed in the sect as well.
After all, the priest’s pious face and voice every time he said mass was mesmerizing enough to reflect the sect’s appeal.

 

Gu Yin thought of this, hissing, and looked up at the sky outside the cave.

 

He seemed to be expecting the sky to darken.

 

That way he could make his way to the church again.

 

There was no other reason; he just wanted a good spot to watch the mass tomorrow morning.

 

The waiting time was always extraordinarily long.

 

When the sky finally darkened, Gu Yin immediately set off in the direction of the town.

 

But to his surprise, the town tonight was much more lively than usual.

 

Even though the sky was darkening quickly, the townspeople still had no intention of returning to their houses to rest.

 

In the past days, even if it was for the purpose of preaching, they would return to their houses at night for prayers instead of wandering in the streets.

 

Gu Yin could smell blood in the air, like the scent left behind by humans who hated each other and beat them up.

 

His snaketail hidden in the shadows hesitated for a moment, but he still didn’t go over in the direction where the smell of blood came from and instead continued to swim over in the direction of the church.

 

Although the town was now filled with people, it didn’t stop him from carefully traveling all the way to the church.

 

The gu in his body were also stirring around in excitement.

 

He didn’t know if it was because of the smell of blood that permeated the town or because he was about to reach the church.

 

Gu Yin looked at the gu rolling under his arm and forced them down.

 

Ever since the first time he saw the priest, the gu in his body had begun to become disobedient and would become restless after not seeing the priest for a day.

 

They would even rebel against his orders.

 

This kind of behavior, which was like his right and left hands not obeying his orders, made Gu Yin very annoyed.

 

But he had no choice but to come over every day.

 

Of course, his main purpose was still to find the right moment to teach the priest a lesson.

 

That was how he explained it to himself every time.

 

Soon after arriving near the church, Gu Yin stopped in his tracks.

 

It was because he smelled a lot of humans in the church.

 

In the past, at this time of the day, the church was long empty.

Now, however, it was still crowded.

 

Gu Yin hid in the shadows and saw the people of the church flanking the tall and slender figure of the priest as he walked out.

 

“Father, they are really bullying people!”

 

“Yes, that’s a believer that you personally baptized, and they were snatched away!”

 

“They must be taught a lesson!”

 

“There was a fight in the afternoon, but they snatched him away because of the crowd—too arrogant!”

 

As Jiu Shu walked in the center of the crowd, his eyes glanced unobtrusively at the gloom outside the church, where an eerie shadow seemed to be hiding.

 

Although the exact figure could not be seen, Jiu Shu could still recognize who the owner of that shadow was.

 

“Take me there to see how our companion is doing now.”
Jiu Shu retracted his gaze and looked up, his beautiful peach blossom-like eyes curving slightly into a soft, natural smile.

 

The extremely affable face made the trust and longing in the eyes of the believers even stronger.

For all the believers, being able to see the smile on Jiu Shu’s face was the greatest incentive for them.

 

“Okay Father!”

 

With that, the group of people walked towards the other end of the town with great vigor.

 

Gu Yin’s huge body was inconveniently covered, so he could only follow from a distance, unable to get too close.

 

However, his keen hearing could still hear some movement.

 

The believers around Jiu Shu were saying things like companion, shame, and so on, as if a believer had been captured, directly affecting the priest’s reputation.

 

After all, having a believer kidnapped just after accepting him was a complete slap in the face of the priest.

 

As the priest’s most loyal fans, the devotees were furious about this.

 

Every believer felt as if they had been slapped several times, unable to swallow this breath, and even had to call in Jiu Shu to preside over the situation at night.

 

As a beast that was accustomed to drinking blood from its fur and didn’t understand the human condition, Gu Yin actually didn’t quite understand why these people were so agitated.

 

He couldn’t understand, so he just stared at Jiu Shu’s back and stopped caring about the others.

 

However, at the same time, every human who approached Jiu Shu’s side was the object of his gaze.

 

The gaze was a grim and jealous one that even he himself hadn’t realized.

 

He should have been hiding in the church at this time to watch Jiu Shu sleep, but now this quiet and beautiful time was taken up by these humans.

 

What damned humans.

 

They obviously already had beautiful and smooth skin, and yet they wanted to rob him of the last meager moments of his time.

 

If only he could skin them, then they would be able to experience what he was feeling at the moment.

 

Hissing, Gu Yin’s vertical pupils filled with annoyance and resentment at this point.

 

“……”

 

No, that wasn’t right; he was a human too; he shouldn’t harbor ill will towards humans.

 

They were all just innocent townspeople compelled by the priest.

 

The priest was bad; they were the good ones.

 

Gu Yin shook his head, burying the murderous intent he had just felt.

 

Over and over again, he told himself that he just wanted to teach the priest a lesson, nothing more.

 

And those humans didn’t have the smoothest skin, and peeling it off wouldn’t make him look good.

 

After convincing himself of this, Gu Yin resumed swimming through the darkness of the town, his dark scales rustling against the ground.

 

Continuing to follow the lead of Jiu Shu and the others.

 

He had always been afraid to admit his true thoughts, and once he did, he would immediately recognize the fact that he would never be able to get close to the beautiful human.

 

Only by using the lesson as an excuse could he continue to move closer without any mental burden.

 

Instead of humbling himself to stay away.

*

The town of Fengjia was exceptionally busy tonight.

 

The age-old roads and streetlights couldn’t stop the noisy sounds of footsteps up and down the town.

 

At this time, Feng Qi was still wandering in the street.

 

In fact, she should have gone home long ago, but when she reached the door, she felt that she was angry with her boyfriend and couldn’t go back so early.

 

Otherwise, it would be as if she had compromised with her boyfriend.

 

It would only make her boyfriend care less and less about her.

So Feng Qi just kept wandering the streets for the whole afternoon; just avoiding the townspeople who preached to her was already exhausting.

 

She managed to find a small vacant house and sat under the eaves to rest for a few hours, and when she opened her eyes, she realized that the town was abuzz with people.

 

Many people were heading in the direction of the Fengjia Town Shrine.
Feng Qi looked around with some curiosity and hesitated to follow him over.

 

In the end, she was still worried that something would happen at the shrine and carefully followed them over.

She followed at the end of the crowd, but not many people noticed Feng Qi.

 

This let her breathe a sigh of relief.

 

But she was too happy too soon; she was after all the prettiest woman in the town; it was impossible for her to remain unnoticed forever.

 

Not long after, a familiar figure walked by her side.

 

Feng Qi recognized that person.

 

It was Xiao Lu, her very close friend when she was a child.

 

At that time, they were students in the same infant class and were very close.

 

Feng Qi still remembered that Xiao Lu was still a very lively child at that time, following her around all day as a little follower.

 

At that time, there were many people who said that Xiao Lu had a crush on her, causing Feng Yun to become jealous.

 

Thinking about it now was also a funny thing.

 

Feng Qi couldn’t help but reveal a slight smile when she thought of her childhood days.

 

But at this time, Xiao Lu was very different from his childhood.

 

At this moment, Xiao Lu was following a group of church members with a frenzied expression, taking advantage of the fact that people were crowded on the road to hand out flyers to the other non-believing townspeople in the town.

 

His face was visibly tired and haggard, but it was hard to hide the exuberance between his eyebrows—no longer the clueless cuteness of his childhood.

 

“Feng Qi? Is that you? It’s been a long time; I’ve heard that you’re back, but I haven’t had the chance to see you.”

 

Xiao Lu also saw Feng Qi; he enthusiastically walked over with a smile on his face.

 

It seemed that he still had the same crush on Feng Qi as when he was a child.

 

Feng Qi smiled politely and ultimately didn’t have the heart to just walk away like she was avoiding the other missionaries.

 

Xiao Lu was quite friendly and didn’t come up and preach right away, but talked about interesting things from his childhood like an old friend he hadn’t seen in years.

 

But the thick bible clutched in his hands and the cross hanging around his neck still betrayed him.

 

Feng Qi could tell at a glance that Xiao Lu was ready to convince her to join the church.

 

Xiao Lu was the same age as Feng Qi and was now only in his early twenties, a rare young man in the town who should have been more sensible and shouldn’t have been deceived by the priest.

But he was still deceived by the priest.

 

When Feng Qi thought of this, she couldn’t help but look at Xiao Lu with pity, and without waiting for him to open his mouth to preach, she interrupted, “Xiao Lu, it’s better for you to stay away from the church; that priest is not a good person.”

 

The smile on Xiao Lu’s face became much fainter. “Feng Qi, the priest is a very good person; don’t slander him.”

 

Feng Qi hated his oblivion. “How many payments have you made? Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?”

Feng Qi really wanted to persuade this close friend of hers to return to the right path.

 

Although she hadn’t come into close contact with the priest, at least the priest her boyfriend Feng Yun spoke of was a hypocritical character to the extreme; the further people stayed away from him, the better.

 

---

TN:

I got super sick again 😮‍💨, I’m so thankful that I feel better so I updated. It’s in 2 part cause it was too long, second part will be updated tomorrow. See ya ❤️